Flirting with Sin Ch. 04

The sinful-sweet pull of her body mixed the thoughts in my head into a mindless animalistic slurry. In that moment I wanted nothing more than to take her so roughly and completely she could no longer move or fight me. Our forms shook violently, the sounds of our wet movements and flesh striking flesh echoed off the walls. My grip on her slipped as I stopped deep inside and poured my holy seed into her hellfire, grunting in unbearable pleasure as I pumped the deepest essence of my soul into her. She let loose a bellowing roar like an angered lion and bit down on my arm.

It wasn't enough. I wanted more. I hungered for more of her hellishly twisted body, her tight demonic form, her desperate animal cries. The chains went slack; she lay there gasping for breath, her body rising and falling in a steady rhythm. I picked her from the ground and pulled her into my grasp, felt her rapid heartbeat against my chest. She was murmuring something between weak mewls, trying to mouth speech, but all she could manage were breathless sighs.

Forcing her up, I lifted her into my arms and carried her to the altar, set her down on top of it. She panted, struggling to catch her breath. Tears and sweat cut lines in the bloodstains on her mouth and her chest. I kissed her again, stealing her breath from her; she desperately sucked at my air as I raided her mouth and attacked her tongue.

Lightsbane's chains retracted--the links freed themselves from Alison's body and fell back toward the hilt where they shifted, piece by piece back into a sword, its blade gleaming in the brazier's light. Alison could move again, yet she was too weak to do anything but lean against me.

"Alison," I whispered to her. "Alison."

The cat demoness perked up, her green eyes fluttering open, her ears twitching, her whiskers flickering against my face; Alison's features twisted with confusion like she was searching herself for the meaning of her own name. She looked at me with quivering lips and whispered a tiny kitten's cry.

"... Trevor?"

The recognition in her eyes was faint and fleeting. The humanity left inside her was frail and fearful, barely surfacing above the sea of demonic corruption swimming in her veins. It wasn't long before it was again forced below, the animal within making itself known with a hungry stare.

The black ooze pouring from the inverted cross pooled around the altar, drops of it hitting Alison's skin. With my hands on her hips I pulled her close to me. She could but weakly throw her limbs around my body and grasp me with her claws. I positioned myself against the opening to her hellish depths and braced her, my hands on her hips, my forehead against her fur-covered forehead. I stared into her with unwavering conviction, determined to drive the demon out of her, and forced my way inside her velvety hell.

Alison murmured weak mewls of pleasure, her chin on my shoulder, her body wrapped around me. The black oil poured over the altar and painted our bodies, smeared between our skin when we touched. I drew her into a kiss as I picked up speed, drawing in and out of her like I was exorcising her with a stake.

Sinking my fingers into her toned behind, gripping her hips, I slammed down on the walls of her unholy temple. She drew away from me and roared but I relentlessly followed after her, smashing our bodies together, pushing in and out. I wouldn't give the demon a moment of rest. Gritting my teeth I growled at her, lowered myself to her level, every bit of animal as she was, full of greedy primal desire.

The demon clung tightly to me, her claws sinking into my shoulders, her feet crossed around my back. She retreated backward onto the altar and I chased her, lording over her body, taking claim of her unholy depths with one strike after another. Blood trickled down my back from the places she'd torn open my skin. The sinful pleasure her twisted body gave me was enough to enthrall my muscles and warp my mind--I couldn't stop myself, I sunk completely into her, I was enraptured by her skin, her animal scent, her troubled face, her desperate cries. The black ooze drenched our skin as we lay on the altar, oozing between our writhing forms. Alison opened her mouth again to bare her fangs at me, an agonized show of fading defiance, and I shoved my tongue into her mouth.

My spirit welled up within me, an overpowering fervor to purify this demon's tainted soul with everything I had to give her. Holding her down by the wrists, I rammed into her with enough force to shake the altar and rattle the inverted cross behind it, the gunk flowing from the satanic symbol overflowing and pooling around us. The hellish grip of this unholy creature's body was enough to make me dizzy and weak; I pushed deep inside her and fell atop her body as all I had to offer was poured inside of Alison.

We lay there in the blood and muck for a long time, my chest pressed against hers, our hearts beating against one another, difficult to tell whose pulse was whose. Alison's green jewels connected with mine and we remained that way, gasping for breath, deep in embrace, until finally her strength expired and she shut her eyes.

When at last my head stopped spinning, the room had changed.

Alison was lying across a simple wooden altar with a correctly-oriented cross sitting behind it. Any trace of the black gunk was gone. Along the walls were stained glass windows depicting Christ and various angels. The room was lined with pews and the walls painted white--we were back in the service room we came in from.

The cat demoness lay there with the Paladin's rosary around her neck, softly breathing in and out. Her muscles were not swollen as they were before and her paws had shrunk down to their normal size, claws retracted into her digits. The extra fur and hair she had grown was still there, but whatever demonic corruption Gales had coaxed no longer held Alison prisoner.

There on the floor in a mess of torn flesh and bloody gore was Father Gales' body, albeit he was not the twisted monstrosity I had shot out of the air. Of what I could make of the remaining pieces of his face, he was an ordinary man with brown hair, perhaps only my senior by a single generation.

Shuu'Vohsa was lying on the carpet, her head resting against the wall. She stirred, outstretched her arms, rubbed her eyes, and let out a loud peep when she caught notice of me. Fluttering her 'wings' and rising to her talons, she hopped over the pews and tweeted cheerfully at me.

"Trevor! Mister Trevor! I had the strangest dream! We were in this bad place. Bad, scary place! And we got separated. I looked for you, but you kept running away from me! Why would you run away? Then some men in robes found me and told me they had a use for me. A good use, a 'holy' use. That is what they said. So they took me to this really hot, fiery room, and, and..." her tweeting slowed from a mile a minute to uncertain peeps. "Well, I do not remember what happened next. You were carrying me, and then... I do not remember. But this is a funny place to wake up. I must have fallen asleep waiting for Father Gales! Oh, what happened to your robe?"

I looked at her, glanced at Gales in pieces on the floor, and then turned back to look at Alison's softly slumbering form. With an exasperated sigh, I just shrugged at the songstress.

"I'll tell you on the way home, Voh."

XV: Deliverance

Alison did not wake up the entire trek across the city.

We strayed from the city proper, sticking to the backstreets and the borders. There was only one safe place I could think to take Alison and it was a rather inconvenient, out of the way backwood slum. A place that might keep her out of the prying eyes of the Church. Though I had failed in my duty to end her life, if she merely escaped from the city's watch, then perhaps, God willing, we might both be spared of this fate.

The rosary was still around her neck. It gleamed in the light of the sun but it no longer burned her skin. I wasn't sure what to make of it; Alison was still very much a demon. The ears atop her head, her fur and tail and claws all attested to that.

Every now and again she would talk in her sleep. "Never... never give it up... Mother's..."

Shuu'Vohsa refused to go back to the apartment without me. She remembered my promise for chocolate eggs and she wanted to personally ensure I made good on it. The song demon fluttered about, floating next to me as I walked, sometimes perching on my shoulder when she was too lazy to trek on her own. Part of me was annoyed, but still another part couldn't stop imagining my landlord beating down my door and Voh answering, naked as the day she was born. Better that she was out here with me.

The Paladin was sitting out on his porch in a rocking chair, leaning back and forth. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw me.

"Hunter!" he called out to me. "That's--that's Alison! What happened?! Did you--?"

"Calm down. She's just asleep." I pointed to the rosary resting on Alison's chest. "I brought her here because you're the only person I know she can trust."

"I was... something like an uncle to her, once upon a time. I can only hope she still sees me that way." He stroked his beard and pondered. "Then, her father...?"

"Dead. I killed him myself."

The color drained from the Paladin's face. "Oh, Alison... If only you could have left well enough alone... I can't imagine the horrors you must have faced."

"Gales turned her into something... else, but the rosary seemed to change her back. I thought it would expel the demon taint in her entirely, but, well, look at her," I said, cradling the demoness in my arms.

The Paladin shook his head at me. "You have only quelled the demon within, calmed her lust for blood. It should remain at bay so long as she wears it. There is no 'coming back' from what she has become, Hunter--this is who she is, now. This is who her mother Felicity was. It is up to her to deny the wicked path, the same as it is for all of us."

"I intend to leave her with you. There's nowhere safe in the city. Church catches wind of her and they'll send someone who can finish the job," I said. "Is there somewhere you can go? The farther away from the city the better."

"... I understand. There is a place I know of for someone like her. I will take her there," he told me, his voice shaking with newfound duty.

He took Alison from me, held her in his arms, and we nodded at one another.

"But... I don't understand." He gave me a searching look. "Why? Why go to such lengths for Alison? Was it not your duty to exterminate her?"

I just shook my head and turned around to leave.

"I made a promise to someone."

The road back to the city was long and winding, an old forgotten path pockmarked with decrepit pre-Church buildings and broken asphalt. Shuu'Vohsa spent much of the journey perching on my arm and at several points I looked up at her to find she was about to doze off, lose her grip on me and fall to the ground.

Voh was wearing a robe she'd borrowed from the chapel, plain and brown, but she would occasionally complain about it and how freeing being naked feels to her. I wouldn't have minded that so much, but it wouldn't go over well as we tried to sneak back into the city.

Ahead of us, off in the distance, I saw the glint of golden armor. Several figures in metal suits, clanking buckets of steel approaching with heavy steps. Among them was a man in an elaborate robe, a metal cross bound to his chest and a tall witch hunter's hat on his head.

... An Inquisitor. Just what I fucking need.

"Oh, are those Church people? Your friends, Trevor?" Voh peeped cluelessly.

"Get behind me, Voh. Stay close," I ordered. The veins in my forehead were throbbing.

The Inquisitor drew a long silver blade and approached us, the Paladins shortly behind. He held it out in front of him, the point directed at my heart.

"Demon Hunter Trevor Rensor. Hunter of the Church. The Inquisition of the Holy Cathedral of Our Salvation the Lord has been tasked with your arrest. You may come quietly or face destruction and damnation," he shouted into the open road, his voice carrying over the whipping winds.

I put a hand on the gun under my robe. "Am I allowed to know what crimes I've supposedly committed?"

The Inquisitor reached into his robe and pulled out a small black book, flipping it open with one hand.

"Your complacency and failure has lead to at least one death of an innocent citizen," he recited.

"I took my lashes for that," I shouted back. He was hardly innocent.

"The murder of Father Richard Gales. You blaspheme against the Lord by taking the life of one of his most devoted servants."

"Gales was tainted by demonic corruption! To let him live would have been to shirk my duty as a Hunter!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "'His most devoted servants?' The man was nothing but a twisted monster. A creature of the Inferno."

"Is that so? What proof have you? His remains were found free of demonic contamination," the Inquisitor retorted. "A Demon Hunter's role is to carry out sentences on those found to be connected to demons and to protect the innocent. Your kind are dogs best kept on a short leash, lest you deem yourself the judge, jury and executioner."

His voice was tinted by smug self-satisfaction and a knowing smile. My hands were balled into fists; I wanted to strangle the life from him.

"Consorting with demons," he damningly accused. "We have reason to believe your recent blasphemy in the chapel of Father Richard Gales was aided and abetted by demonic forces. Such as the weapons on your belt... and the one standing next to you."

My teeth were grinding against my will and cold sweat crawled down my back. There was no way out of this and he knew that. It was written all over his smug face. There was nothing this self-righteous bastard enjoyed more than looking down upon others he deems less sanctified.

"Voh, run! Fly away!" I shouted at her, pulling out the magnum and aiming the barrel at the Inquisitor's head.

"B-but--!" she stammered, backing away from me.

"Very poor decision, Demon Hunter. Very poor," the Inquisitor said, his words rife with malicious glee.

From his belt the Inquisitor hurled a hook on a long chain. It snapped around Shuu'Vohsa's waist and the hook sank into her side. She screeched in terrified agony as she was pulled away, a trail of blood following after her path toward the Inquisitor.

"Damn it!" I cursed; I held the magnum steady, pulled back the hammer and fired.

Clang! The bullet struck the Inquisitor's silver sword and ricocheted into the broken asphalt. His peeling lips formed a wide, wicked smile. He took the hook in hand and put it to Voh's neck.

"Attempted murder of a member of the Inquisition of the Holy Cathedral of Our Salvation the Lord. Your crimes pile up. I will see you burn, Hunter. You and your hellspawn pet."

Teeth grit and muscles tense, I drew Lightsbane. I didn't care if there were ten or a hundred Paladins behind him.

"Choose your next moves very carefully, Demon Hunter," he hissed, the words snaking from his infuriating smile. "Do you care for this demon? Lay down your weapons and surrender yourself. Take another step and I will eradicate her so completely that not a trace of her will exist in any plane of being."

"Tr-Trevor...!" Voh cried, trembling in terror.

"Do not worry, hellspawn. You shall burn on a holy pyre together. Your sins shall be exorcised from this our Lord's land by fire, hand in hand. Is that not romantic?" The Inquisitor cackled.

"God damn it!" I spat in agonized frustration. There wasn't a thing I could do.

"Tut-tut! Taketh not the Lord's name in vain," the Inquisitor mocked.

Slowly I lowered to the ground and set Lightsbane and the magnum down on the asphalt. There was nothing else I could do but shake in impotent rage, utterly powerless.

"Well done, Hunter. Perhaps the two of you shall have a chance to see one another again as you burn for eternity in the lake of fire," the Inquisitor sneered. "Take him away."

He gestured to one of the Paladins, all faceless golden armor, who approached me and nonchalantly struck my head with the butt of his rifle.

I sank to the ground where I was quickly swallowed up by nothingness.

The cell was freezing cold. I couldn't remember the last time I ate. There was nothing to occupy my mind but the drip drip drip of water leaking in from the ceiling.

This dungeon was specifically for those who had committed crimes against the Church and were to be put to death. There would be no trial. I had overwhelming evidence of my guilt and that Inquisitor was all too eager to put me to the flame.

How many hours had it been? Days? Time ceased for me in this place. The seconds passed by in unbearable quiet while somewhere above me, Voh was being tortured or worse.

I knew of those like him. They hated that the Inquisition wasn't the sole authoritative branch of the Church and that those like me had any sort of power among the average citizenry. He wouldn't be happy until all Demon Hunters were nothing more than lap dogs who kill on command or were driven out of the Church entirely.

A shadow darkened the dim hallway, followed by the clicking of heels. A nun stood before my cell, her face darkened beneath the veil of her wimple. Her habit was long and flowing black, such that I couldn't see even an inch of her skin.

"Thou have met with a most terrible fate, Demon Hunter," she said. Her voice was feminine and youthful; she was probably younger than me. "Doest thou feel even a sliver of remorse for thine actions?"

I hesitated.

"No. Not even a little."

"That you should turn from the Lord in such a manner after all your vows and training. How deeply sorrowful. I shall pray for thee from the bottom of mine heart, Demon Hunter," she said, her words slow and pained and yet I knew not a word of it was genuine.

"Save your breath, Sister. I did what I had to. If this is where my fate lies, I will have to accept the weight of my sins."

The nun put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Trevor. Givin' up, just like that? That ain't like you." Her tone had shifted, the faux-concerned drivel shifting to a spunky sneer.

The cell door opened and the nun sauntered inside. She put her hands on my shoulders and lowered herself into my lap, straddling me. My eyes shot open.

"S-sister?! What are you doing?!"

Pulling back her wimple, she pressed her black lips against mine and forced her tongue--both of her tongues--into my mouth, rolling them over mine, brushing roughly against my tongue from both sides. When finally she broke the kiss, she leaned back into the faint light to reveal her orange skin and her black voids for eyes with glowing red cores. She smiled wide, a bed of sharpened daggers lining her mouth.

"Alice!" I gasped. "What--how did you get in here? What are you doing here?"

"Aw, come on. Ya think I'd just leave ya in here to get crucified or burned at the stake? Listen, buster. You belong to me. If anyone's gonna kill ya, it's gonna be me," she said, her smile never wavering. Then she leaned into my neck and sunk those daggers into my skin.

"Gah! Alice!" I grunted, gripping her habit.

Once and then twice, she took a gulp of my blood. "Mmm. You better not let me get used to this. You taste real good. Maybe Girty was right." Winking, she put her burning-hot fingers to my neck gather up some of the blood. "Sorry, but I need summa this if we're gonna get outta here."

Alice stood up and began tracing her bloody fingers along the dungeon wall. She drew the outline of a door, then began quickly drawing runes inside it.

"Did you see Voh? Is she alright?" I pressed her.